{"id":353005,"date":"2024-09-26T17:42:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-26T07:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=353005"},"modified":"2024-09-27T12:09:18","modified_gmt":"2024-09-27T02:09:18","slug":"nuclear-costs-in-due-course","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2024\/09\/26\/nuclear-costs-in-due-course\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuclear Costs ‘In Due Course’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Opposition Leader Peter Dutton speaking to CEDA on Monday<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

September 26, 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s long-awaited “nuclear” speech to an economic think tank has admitted the Coalition’s energy plan – which would see seven nuclear plants built if it wins power at next year’s Federal Election – would have a “significant upfront cost”.<\/p>\n

But he did not say what this expected cost would be.<\/p>\n

“We will release our costings in due course \u2013 at a time of our choosing,” Mr Dutton told the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) audience gathered on Monday in Sydney (see the full text of Mr Dutton’s speech, below).<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mr Dutton was joined at the event by journalist Chris Uhlmann, from Sky News.<\/p>\n

The Opposition Leader said that by positioning the nuclear plants at the site of existing coal-fired power stations, “a whole new and vast transmission network and infrastructure won\u2019t be needed”.<\/p>\n

He said the upfront cost would be spread over the reactors’ expected 80-year lifespans and promised “thousands of jobs” would be created by “zero emission” nuclear energy.<\/p>\n

And objections to a civil nuclear industry on the grounds of safety and waste disposal were “inconsistent and illogical” due to the AUKUS plan for nuclear-powered submarines.<\/p>\n

In June this year, the Coalition proposed seven sites to house nuclear power generators: Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Mt Piper (Lithgow) and Liddell in NSW, Loy Yang in Victoria, Muja (Collie) in Western Australia and Port Augusta in South Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Critics of the Coalition’s energy plan have claimed that electricity prices would have to rise for nuclear power plants to be commercially viable without government subsidies.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A report<\/a><\/strong> released by the Institute For Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) said Australian household power bills would likely rise $665 per year based on an analysis of the construction costs of nuclear reactor projects committed to construction over the past 20 years in the European Union and North America.<\/p>\n

The report also considered tender contract prices submitted for small modular reactor and Korean reactor designs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur research found that all projects commencing construction in the past 20 years in in the US and Europe experienced major budget blowouts up to three-and-a-half times original capital costs, as well as construction delays of many years,\u201d IEEFA spokesperson Johanna Bowyer said<\/p>\n

\u201cSmall modular reactors (SMRs), which are often cited as a solution to resolve the nuclear industry\u2019s cost and construction time problem, remain costly and unproven, with no reactors in operation in the OECD. The reactor closest to becoming a reality, NuScale, was cancelled due to cost blowouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nationals Leader David Littleproud<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Speaking on Sky News on Tuesday, Nationals Leader David Littleproud defended the lack of costings in Mr Dutton’s speech:<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Well, we’ve got plenty of time … we\u2019re eight months away from an election,” Mr Littleproud told host Laura Jayes.<\/p>\n

“What we had to do is continue to make sure we engage with those seven communities that we highlighted where the nuclear power plants will replace those coal-fired power stations, so we don’t need that 28,000km of transmission lines to build a social licence.<\/p>\n

“And we are making sure that experts are in there, engaging with the community.<\/p>\n

“And that’s why you haven’t seen any pushback from those local communities because we’ve shown them the respect of not taking politics to them but giving them the understanding that nearly 80 per cent of those (who) are working in those coal-fired power stations will be able to transition across into a nuclear power plant.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“And then the next phase will not just be about the costings, but we’ll also be upfront with the Australian people well before the next election about what our energy mix will be.”<\/p>\n

He described the nuclear plants as “plug and play” … “you don’t need as much transmission lines, it\u2019s plug and play, exactly where they are”.<\/p>\n

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